Stop motion drop wire

ABSTRACT

A drop wire which has its top portion securely held in a slot formed on the drop wire by attaching two metal strips thereto.

[451 Jan. 18, 1972 References Cited [54] STOP MOTION DROP WIRE,

[72] Inventor: Robert H. Powell, Hartwell, Ga. UNITED STATES PATENTSDeerlng Milliken Research Corporation, Spartanburg, SC.

July 2, 1970 [21 AppLNol: 51,848

Weddington ..........................139/368 2,610,656 9/1952Watson..................................139/368 [73] Assig'nee:

[22] Filed:

Primary Exqminerl-lenry S. J audon Attorney-Norman C. Armitage and H.William Petry ABSTRACT 51/26 A drop wire which has its top portionsecurely held in a slot 139/353 623 82 2 formed on the drop wire byattaching two metal strips thereto.

[52] U.S.Cl.... [5|] lnt.Cl. [58] FieldofSearch...................

1 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PAIENIEnJm we INVENTOR. ROBERT H. POWELLATTORNEY STOP MOTION DROP WIRE This invention relates to an improveddrop wire for use in stop motion mechanisms in looms and although I haveshown it in connection with the notched bar-type of stop motion, it isevident that this could be used in the electrical stop motion drop wireor in the older type of stop motion mechanism whereby when a drop wireis allowed to drop due to parting of a strand or lack of tensiontherein, an oscillating member fails to get its full swing and thusstops the loom.

In a loom there are sometimes several thousand warp threads in a sheetof warp and each thread runs through an individual drop wire and as longas each thread has proper tension thereon, the drop wire is held inelevated position and therefore cannot actuate the stop motionmechanism. Upon parting of a thread or strand or loss of tension thereinfor any reason which would cause imperfect weaving, the drop wire movesdownwardly and stops the loom by any one of several stop motionmechanisms with which it is associated.

It is also known that from time to time drop wires become damaged suchas by being broken or by having certain imperfections therein and it isquite a proposition to remove a broken drop wire because the entire dropwire assembly, that is the bars on which the drop wires are supported,has to be removed from the loom and all of the drop wires reinstalled inconventional, the U-shaped bar on each side thereof has order to installa new drop wire in the place of one which has become broken.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a drop wire whichcan easily be placed on the supporting bars of a stop motion mechanismwithout in any way disturbing the thousands of other drop wires alreadyin installed position.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objectswill appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection withthe accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a portion of a certain type of drop wireassembly and bars and showing my invention applied thereto; and

FIG. 2 is an isometric elevation of the top portion of one of the dropwires.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, the numeral 10 indicates aportion of one side of the frame of a loom, the other side beingidentical but not shown.

This portion of the frame of the loom has a vertically disposed slot 11therein in which is mounted a bar 12 which is U-shaped in cross section.The U-shaped bar is secured in position at each end thereof by anyconventional means such as a screw or bolt 13. Oscillatably mounted in achannel in the U-shaped bar 12 is a sliding bar 14 which has anelongated slot 15 therein slidably penetrated by the bolt or screw 13.This bar 14 is associated with the stop motion mechanism and, as isnotches 16 which are coinciding and the oscillating bar 14 has aplurality of notches 17. There are thousands of drop wires 20 mountedfor vertical sliding movement on the bars 12 and 14 and each of thesedrop wires has an elongated slot 21 which is of greater vertical heightthan the total vertical height of the bars 12 and 14. These drop wireseach have a hole or eye 23 therethrough through which a strand of warp24 passes, only two of the many drop wires being shown.

In the conventional drop wires, the same are made from a flat piece ofsheet steel with the slot 21 and hole 23 stamped therein providing twoside portions 25 and 26. In the present invention, one of the sideportions, such as side portion 26, is severed as at 27 and being ofspring steel, the side portion 26 can be moved sidewise to remove thedrop wire from the bars 12 and 14 and likewise a new drop wire can haveits side por tion 26 sprung to insert the same in case one of the dropwires should be damaged. However, the main purpose of the present dropwire is to use it in association with conventional drop wires so that incase a conventional drop wire should have to be replaced, one of theimproved drop wires can be placed instead, or all of the drop wirescould be of the improved type shown in the drawings. The side portion 26normally springs back into ali ment with the projectin portion 21} butin order to hol the same in alignment ere 18 provided two metal strips28 and 29 which are riveted or otherwise secured to the upper sideportion 26 to provide a slot 30 therein to accommodate the upper end 31of the side portion 26 to prevent the severed portions of the drop wire20 from being bent and interferring with adjacent drop wires.

it is thus seen that I have provided a replaceable drop wire for stopmotions in looms which can be quickly inserted in place of a damageddrop wire and thus saving a greater amount of labor and material in thata loom can quickly be placed again in operation after a defective dropwire occurs.

In the drawings and specification there has been set forth a preferredembodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed,they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only, and not forpurposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined in theclaims.

That which is claimed is:

l. A stop motion detector drop wire comprising a thin flat metal bodyhaving an elongated slot near one end and a centrally disposed eyethrough which a warp thread is adapted to be passed, one side of saidmetal body being severed into two portions, a first strip of materialconnected to one face of said two portions and a second strip ofmaterial connected to the other face of said portion to which said firststrip of material is connected providing a slot to accommodate the otherof said two portions.

1. A stop motion detector drop wire comprising a thin flat metal bodyhaving an elongated slot near one end and a centrally disposed eyethrough which a warp thread is adapted to be passed, one side of saidmetal body being severed into two portions, a first strip of materialconnected to one face of said two portions and a second strip ofmaterial connected to the other face of said portion to which said firststrip of material is connected providing a slot to accommodate the otherof said two portions.